Bonum Certa Men Certa

Gemini Links 27/06/2023: The Gemini PDA, Leadership and Management



  • Personal/Opinions

    • 🔤SpellBinding: GILURSO Wordo: GEOID
    • On the Cusp of Summer

      There's summer, and then there's _summer_ - that point at which, regardless of what the season says, regardless of what the weather's been, it feels like something's changed, and a new season begins. For me, that's always been July. My partner is a teacher, and has the summer months off. So for her, summer is Summer Vacation, July and August, and for me it's taken on that meaning as well. In school, and then in university, I kept this schedule too, so as I met my partner in university and have been with her since, I've never really known anything different. I can't really defend it in any meaningful way, but summer begins in July.

    • All signs point to her
    • Tree/Shrub TBD

      Yesterday (2023-06-26) this little (shrub? tree?) caught my eye.

  • Technology and Free Software

    • ReactOS, or: The Thinkpad lives!

      With the friendly help of my local electronic waste disposal service i got a new mainboard for my old Thinkpad R60 that has died a while ago (i wrote about it in another post)... so, its back in the land of the living and it comes near the point where we have to ask the "Ship of Theseus" question ;-)

      Now i am at the point where i have not only one but TWO usable fairly (for my circumstances) daily driver capable computers, so what to do with the Thinkpad? I could simply go back and install OpenBSD on it like i had for the most time of having it in my posession, but that somehow feels a bit too... "normal"

    • The Gemini PDA and Time-capsule Computing

      I write this log on a Planet Computers Gemini PDA. Released in 2018, the Gemini PDA is a small UMPC aesthetically based on the Psion Series 5 from the late 1990s. It was the first PDA released by Planet Computers and came in WiFi and 4G models--the latter can make telephone calls and use cellular data to connect to the Internet. The PDA was primarily designed to run Android and is based on an SoC for Android phones, but it can also run Debian, Kali Linux or Sailfish. It can also dual-boot between any of these.

    • Leadership and Management

      I'm in my 40s and a good majority of my life has revolved around being or becoming a technical expert. In school I was the nerdy kid in the 90s that just kept my head down, had a few friends, and grew to love computers. I took my computer to LAN parties, and usually did my work to the best of my abilities. I wasn't the top of my class, I was in the middle, and I wasn't an outcast, I was just there. I blended in, and I wasn't part of any popular crowds. I was kind and friendly, and of course joked with my friends and was angsty just like the rest of the teenagers there, but most of all, my primary focus in school was to learn, and so that's what I did. Whether I was learning the things my teachers needed me to was another story, but I was driven to learn because I didn't like not knowing things and above all, failing.

    • Games Showcase: Baba Is You

      “Baba is you” is a sliding blocks puzzle game—yawn. Where the rules are encoded as blocks on the board—wait, what?

    • Getting the width of the current monitor in Emacs

      If you have virtual workspaces on macOS and you use the emacs function display-pixel-width it will give the combined with of ALL the monitors you are using. You are better off using (caddr (frame-monitor-attribute 'geometry)), since frame-monitor-attribute gets the specified attribute from the monitor which the current frame is actually on. BTW: The function frame-monitor-attributes returns all the monitor attributes. The function display-monitor-attributes-list returns the attributes for ALL the monitors you are using.

    • Internet/Gemini

      • The always something of software

        A while back I wrote a Lua script called 'gemlink' leveraging 'gemget' to fetch the content of a given argument-specified Gemini URL, processing/formatting links so they stand out a bit more to me. I then created another called "gemlink-all" that reads all lines of stdin, running "gemlink" against all such links, facilitating getting the content of numerous Gemini documents into a single file, should I feel like having a bit of a quote-and-comment fest.

    • Programming

      • Useless things? ➰🗿🤏

        I like making software things that may not quite be useless, but only get used by me. I like making whatever I have a whim to make. I don't have to care about what anyone else wants or needs.

      • Re: Interleaved 2D Notation for Concatenative Programming

        I am always curious about structure editors, and ways to represent structured data, especially code. So I was pretty curious about this post and the provided links to the pdf file and a web IDE. However, I think this is one is totally pointless (like most attempts at 2d/graphical programming paradigms).

        The beauty of concatenative languages such as Forth is that the arguments precede the operation dynamically/temporally, and can therefore be decoupled. Arguments can come from anywhere as long as they get pushed onto the stack -- at any time prior to the execution of this particular instruction! This is crucial, as that is how we concatenate.


* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.



Recent Techrights' Posts

There Are Also Loads of Microsoft LinkedIn Layoffs Today (Keep Track of the Subsidiaries They Keep Out of Headlines)
Perhaps lost in the smokescreen
There Are Bigger Rounds of Microsoft Layoffs Coming, a Cull of 10% Implemented in Waves (the "3%" Figure is Misleading, Face-Saving)
Last night we said they might do the layoffs in three or at least two waves
Unless a Third of All Microsoft Layoffs Worldwide Are in Redmond (Washington) Alone, Microsoft Has Just Lied to Everyone Via Jordan Novet in CNBC (i.e. the Usual Any Time There's Mass Layoffs and Novet Weighs in With False Numbers)
Maybe when Microsoft said 3% it meant ~6,000 or more in the US alone
As Expected, Microsoft Uses Media Operative (Jordan Novet) to Downplay the Scale of Mass Layoffs
here we go
 
Gemini Links 14/05/2025: "Writing My Story with Inspiration from Notable Lives" and People Start Shovelling Up LLM Slop Onto Geminispace,
Links for the day
Microsoft is Very Highly Stressed About Adoption of GNU/Linux at Windows' Expense (on Former "Vista 10" PCs)
What does this tell us?
Slopwatch: BetaNoise (BetaNews), LinuxSecurity, and Slopfarms Still Promoted by Google News
The primary goal is to demonstrate the problem persists
Links 14/05/2025: Google Agrees to $1.3 Billion Settlement After Spying, China Tariffs Don't Work
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, May 13, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, May 13, 2025
Gemini Links 13/05/2025: Apocalyptic Future and More
Links for the day
McKinsey (McK) is Killing IBM, It's All About Killing This Goose, "National Sales Team 80% on PIP Now" (Preceding Layoffs Without Severance)
PIPs are not based on performance
Links 13/05/2025: Microsoft Breaks Windows Very Badly Again, Mass Layoffs Reported (But False Figures, It's a Lot Higher)
Links for the day
2025 Will be a Big Year For GNU/Linux on Desktops/Laptops
with an economy like this, people who don't live in rich countries won't turn to Apple
Signs of Trouble: Microsoft Job Openings for Jobs That Do Not Exist!
Keeping up appearances?
"Special Place in Hell" for Women Who Help Violent Microsofters From Another Continent Attack Local Women Who Did Nothing Wrong, They Just Got Bullied and Deserve Sympathy or Compensation
Nothing says "Brat" like men who attack women, right?
The Numbers Game: 50,000-60,000 Microsoft Workers Laid Off in 2.5 Years? And Debt Still Tripled Under Nadella.
under Nadella Microsoft's debt trebled
The Slow Death of Windows Will Mean the Inevitable Demise of Microsoft
Once people stop using Windows, it'll be hard for Microsoft to sell anything to them
Last Week's Public Talk by Richard Stallman Well Attended and Covered in Technical News Sites
and we're looking at about 60,000 Microsoft layoffs in 3 years
Gemini Links 13/05/2025: Shopping is an Exasperating Nightmare and Making Phones Minimal
Links for the day
23,000 More Microsoft Layoffs by the End of June If the Estimates Are Correct (In Addition to About 6,000 Layoffs So Far This Year)
There's no questions about many layoffs happening this month. It got leaked already. The only question is when (and also how many).
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, May 12, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, May 12, 2025
Major Microsoft Layoffs This Week (Discussed Online)
later we can expect a lot of spin, even misinformation
What Happened to the Open Source Initiative (OSI) Elections: Missed Deadline
they helped expose a number of other scandals
Links 12/05/2025: Measles Rising and Taliban Outlaws Chess in Afghanistan
Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/05/2025: Advice, Iorist Ethics, and Touchscreens
Links for the day
The Finances of GAFAM Aren't as They Seem
MICROSOFT FINANCIAL PYRAMID revisited
Links 12/05/2025: US Brain Drain and Reminder That "Microsoft's Lobbying Efforts Eclipsed Enron" (Fraud Coverup)
Links for the day
The Enshittification of Royal Mail (Post Office/Postal Services) Continues
Enshittification is a thing, not only in the digital realm
Red Hat's Owner is Called "America's Worst Tech Company" (IBM) and Microsoft's Liabilities Grow
Microsoft has about a quarter of a trillion (yes, trillion with a "T") in liabilities
If the Gossip is True, Today Microsoft Has "Large M1 Meetings" to Discuss Almost 30,000 More Microsoft Layoffs in 2025
the claim is that Microsoft is preparing to lay off 10% of its staff
Microsoft Has a Long and Proven History of Funding Meritless Lawsuits Against Rivals and Critics (It Always Backfires)
It also looks like the solicitor used by two Microsofters to SLAPP us is being urgently replaced
Links 12/05/2025: Gardens and Kitchens
Links for the day
Links 12/05/2025: Media Being Attacked (New Forms of Attack on the Press), Many Data Breaches
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, May 11, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, May 11, 2025